Adult ed classes return to Sweetwater

NATIONAL CITY  Teachers and students in the Sweetwater Union High School District applauded during a board meeting Monday ﻿as Superintendent Ed Brand revealed a recommendation to reinstate adult education cuts.

“As a result of Friday and Saturday’s state Senate and Assembly votes staff is comfortable recommending that the adult education and ROP be restored,” he said.

As a part of its 2013-14 fiscal year budget, school board members approved funding adult education and ROP at $2.8 million and $2.5 million respectively.

Their decision reinstated 40 frozen and 25 full-time positions eliminated in April for the Regional Occupational Program and Career Technical Education.

The cuts were a precautionary measure because the district was uncertain about whether funds administered by the County Office of Education would be available until the release of Gov. Jerry Brown’s May budget revision, Brand said.

In January, the governor’s proposal was to shift adult education from K-12 districts to community colleges. Under the new plan, $500 million would fund a group operated by community colleges and school districts.

During public comment, Montgomery Lish, a teacher at Montgomery Adult School, thanked Brand for his support in lobbying for adult education in Sacramento.

In March, Brand said he would work with Sens. Marty Block and Ben Hueso as well as Congressman Juan Vargas to discuss future legislation that would remove the county as an intermediary in distributing ROP funding beginning fiscal year 2014-15 to get funding directly from the state.

“We have a clear path to getting funding through a consortium,” Lish said. “It’s been a long struggle and we’re going to have a couple of challenging years ahead of us.”

Lish said while $3 million was only 1 percent of the district’s budget, it's about 25 percent of adult education's four-program budget.

Budget development guidelines provided by the San Diego County Office of Education for all districts allow them to include projected revenue enhancements in their budget but require funds above the current revenue limit to be placed in reserve until the state budget is passed.

District Chief Financial Officer Albert Alt said the adoption of the local control funding formula replaces a process previously in place for 40 years and it will take seven months for the department of education to work through the new funding model.

“This is really a watershed moment for us in school funding,” Alt said. “It brings us back to pre-recession funding levels.”

Overall, Alt said the future is looking brighter.

For fiscal year 2014-15, more teachers will be hired, he said, adding that the student to teacher ratio will go back to 28 to 1 versus the current 31 to 1.